VIOLAZIONE DI LUOGO SACRO. - The violation of churches, cemeteries and, in general, of any other thing ordered to divine worship, is determined by acts or sacrilege (v.), a vice of irreligion by which one sins indirectly against God by offending those things destined for His worship. Since persons, places, and things may be consecrated, a distinction is usually made between personal, local, and real sacrilege.
The acts that may cause the violation of churches, cemeteries, etc., are the crime of homicide (and suicide must likewise be so regarded), a considerable shedding of human blood, voluntarily and injuriously caused; the burial of an unbeliever or of a person excommunicated after a declaratory or condemnatory sentence; and finally other impious and irreverent uses (can. 1172). It is expressly required that such facts be certain and notorious and that they have been committed in such places. The aforesaid enumeration is exhaustive and therefore cannot be subject to extensive interpretation. The same rule applies to the local element: thus, in the case of violation of a church, it cannot be extended to the adjoining cemetery, and vice versa. This is according to the CIC and in contrast with previous ecclesiastical legislation.
As a result of the violation, the sacred place, although it does not lose its original consecration, nevertheless remains contaminated. Various consequences follow. The immediate effect of the violation is that divine ceremonies may not be celebrated in places thus profaned. Indeed, it is prescribed that, if the violation occurs during sacred functions, these must be immediately interrupted. The institution of reconciliation provides a remedy for the ultimate consequences of the violation (v. iv). Other acts, although not constituting violation in the strict sense, are held to offend the nature of sacred places and are therefore forbidden therein. Such profane acts include civil trials, commercial transactions, theatrical performances, etc. By express reference, the same discipline laid down with regard to churches also applies to cemeteries (can. 1207).
Upon those who perpetrate the aforesaid offenses, the CIC imposes the penalty of interdict; moreover, it grants the Ordinary the faculty of applying other suitable penalties. Violators of tombs, in addition to interdict, incur ipso facto infamy and, if clerics, are deposed.
In Italian criminal law, the violation of churches, tombs, and consecrated cemeteries is regarded as criminal activity directed against religious sentiment. Article 404 of the Cod. pen. deals with offenses against religion by contempt for things. The things to whose violation the legal sanction refers are indicated by an indeterminate expression: “things that are objects of worship, whether consecrated for worship or necessarily intended for the exercise of worship.” The object in which the meaning of these latter expressions is embodied includes, among other things, churches, tombs, and consecrated cemeteries. Yet this requirement mentioned by the law must not be understood as “consecration” in the strict sense. Consequently, places made sacred by mere constitutive blessing are also to be considered such (cf. can. 1497 § 2). The law further makes punishability conditional upon the contempt having occurred in a public place or a place open to the public, or in a place intended for worship. For this purpose, however, even merely presumed publicity is sufficient: thus the act is punishable even if, in the particular case, the offense was committed secretly. Consequently, in contempt for churches, cemeteries, etc., publicity is only an aspect of the offense itself. In this respect, semi-public oratories and domestic chapels are fully equated with churches, temples, etc. Nevertheless, for an exact application of the law, it is appropriate to have recourse to the wording of the CIC, according to which sacred places are those intended for divine
worship or for the burial of the faithful by consecration or liturgical blessing (can. 1154).
The concept of contempt generally includes all those acts by which it is considered that the sacred place has not been duly respected. Such acts may consist both in material acts against the thing and in immaterial acts such as words, speeches, insults, defamations, drawings, etc. Finally, it is necessary that the injurious activity be carried out with specific intent, that is, with the will and consciousness of vilifying and despising religion. It is clear that if the things treated with contempt are also damaged or destroyed, there is concurrence of offenses (art. 404 and 635, no. 3 Cod. pen.). The Italian Code further punishes with imprisonment from one to five years anyone who violates a grave, tomb, or urn. The object of the violation is any construction made in a burial place for the deposition of human remains. For the offense to occur, the tomb must actually contain human remains. Specific intent is not required for this offense: the motive for the crime may consist in contempt itself, or in theft, damage, etc. In the latter cases, the same action gives rise to different legal consequences, thus resulting in concurrence of offenses.